Most of our learning happens along the trail, but, today, we learned quite a bit about what it’s like to be in town. Big Bear is the first (of four or so) stops along the trail where we decided to buy food to resupply, instead of picking up a box that had been mailed to us. We chose this because there’s a real grocery store in Big Bear (Vons — pronounced “Safeway” to Northern Californians), so we knew we wouldn’t have to subsist on just convenience-store food.

Rally. Treeman. Squatch. Hedgehog. Dude. Etch-A-Sketch. You’ve heard me referring to people with these names…but, no, the PCT isn’t completely overrun with hippies. When you’re hiking any of the big tree long trails (Appalachian, Continental Divide, Pacific Crest), people end up taking on trail names — nicknames based on their character, appearance, experiences, or anything else about them that’s identifying, charming, or simply unique. Getting a trail name is part of your “rite of passage” to hiking these long trails.

Oh, what a joy it was to look outside our door this morning and see blue skies! After getting rained out all day yesterday, the sun looked so, so good. When we returned to Ziggy and the Bear’s place, it was completely unrecognizable from just twelve hours before: sunshine everywhere, the carpets were all drying, and almost not a hiker in sight — they’d all left for the trail! And, so, with nothing more than a brief farewell, we did, too.

Our descent down Fuller Ridge was both brutal and incredible. Brutal because we spent eighteen miles going down the side of a mountain; incredible because the views you get from a trip like that are just spectacular. We woke up this morning at 8,800′ with 31° chill in our tent and ice in our water; we’re falling asleep this evening at 1,700′ and a balmy 61°.

Did you know there were 10,000-foot mountains two hours east of Los Angeles? Me neither, but I certainly won’t forget again. We got snowed on today! And hailed on! Isn’t this supposed to be the desert?

We’re camped at almost 9,000 feet tonight, and it was 31° at 7:00 PM. This is the slope of …

No, I don’t mean wildfires, either — I mean the kind you start in your fireplace, in your hotel room, at night. Because you can, and because falling asleep in a real bed in front of a crackling fire in a warm room (and with indoor plumbing!) is wonderful.

Our hike this morning was the strangest yet for this trip: it was cold! It’s the first morning yet that I actually wanted to leave my hoody on for a while after I started hiking, and, even hiking up hills with a big pack, there were times I was a little too chilly. It was wonderful.

Not only that, but the world was beautiful in a completely different way than it has been, too: …

Think back to what you were doing last Thursday. It doesn’t matter what it actually was, and my point isn’t that it was likely reasonably predictable. It’s more that last Thursday probably doesn’t seem all that long ago — there’s been an intervening weekend, and now the week has started again.

Three days ago, my backpack tore itself apart. Or, at least, tried to: the long metal “stay” running up and down the spine broke free of its enclosure, and punched a hole through the bottom of the bag. It wasn’t trip-ending, but it was concerning: not only did I not have the support I needed from the stay, but, well, holes in the bottom of the bag containing all the possessions you need to survive are generally frowned upon.

So, I did what any enterprising through-hiker these days would do: I hiked about ten minutes up the trail, pulled out my …

In the eight days and 100 miles we’ve been hiking, we’ve come across naturally-occurring water out here twice. All anyone thinks about when planning the next segment of their hike is water: where it is, how sure they can be of it, and …

As I lie down beneath the stars tonight, I’m filled with a kind of sadness — because I’ve already felt such friendship with so many fellow hikers out here, and because it’s obvious that some of those connections will be lost soon enough.

It started this morning in Julian, when, after showering (again, just because we could!) and a two-course breakfast (waffles, mmm!), Clare and I went out to sit on the front porch of the hotel…and suddenly found …

Clean! After 77 miles out hiking through the desert, it really is just about impossible to describe how good it feels to be clean again. Layers and layers of desert dust mixed with sunscreen are now gone from our bodies, and (mostly) from our clothes.

It’s true, believe it or not — it really does get hot in the desert. OK, so that surprises nobody…and, in fact, it hasn’t even been that hot: today was the first day it got to be over 80° out there. But …